


After 02x07 (the Two Live Crew Job)

by PseudoLeigha



Series: (More) 2AM Conversations [21]
Category: Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 14:52:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6524623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PseudoLeigha/pseuds/PseudoLeigha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parker and Sophie discuss Sophie leaving.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After 02x07 (the Two Live Crew Job)

Sophie and Parker were both staying the night at Nate’s apartment, though Parker wasn’t sure if Nate knew that. He knew that Sophie was staying, obviously – he had invited her, after her apartment exploded – but Parker hadn’t wanted to tell him she was unwilling to go back to her place with Apollo in town. He was almost as good as she was, and after she beat him at the job and their lock-picking race, she didn’t want him following her back to her warehouse to take a crack at it. So she had just let herself back in at Nate’s, after everyone else left and Nate went to bed.

The grifter had taken Parker’s sudden appearance rather better than usual, telling her only that she’d better be quiet, because Sophie wanted to get some sleep. So now, several hours later, Parker was curled up in a chair, idly tying and untying knots and watching Sophie stare off into space on the sofa, clearly unable to sleep, looking almost as dead as she did lying in that coffin. Apparently Sophie was thinking something similar, because she said, suddenly, “I never did thank you, Parker, for saving my life.”

“Uh… you’re welcome?”

Sophie smiled. “No, really, thank you. I – I truly thought, for a moment there, that I was done for.” As far as Parker was concerned, it wasn’t that big a deal. She had lost track of the number of times she had almost died, and Sophie really hadn’t been that close. Not, like, breaking a line and falling down an elevator shaft close (Parker had gotten friction burns through her gloves on that one, and dislocated a shoulder, and still broke a leg on the landing). She certainly wasn’t going to let Eliot live down telling Sophie to drop the bomb and run instead of just very carefully setting it down on the counter, which is what she thought was going to happen when she left, but since she had just dropped it, anyway, Parker herself hadn’t done that much to fix the problem.

“I didn’t do anything, really,” she pointed out.

Sophie shook her head in a way that Parker was pretty sure meant she didn’t agree, but wasn’t going to argue about it. After a while, it became clear that the older woman wasn’t going to say anything else. Normally, Parker thought, that would be fine – she didn’t mind the silence like Hardison seemed to. Before the team, she went days sometimes without talking, and she still got along best with Eliot and his long, comfortable silences. Hardison and Sophie, though, were always full of words, and it seemed wrong that Sophie was now so quiet.

She hesitated to ask, but the grifter had always encouraged her to talk about her feelings and ask questions when she didn’t understand something, even more since they had all moved to Boston. “Are you okay, Sophie?”

The older woman startled, just a little. “What? Yes, of course I am. Why do you ask?” she spoke too quickly, almost like she wanted Parker to know she was lying.

Parker did not, however know what to make of that, so she took her time piecing together the answer to the question instead. “You just… don’t seem very… happy, I guess, about not-dying.”

Sophie’s eyes widened, reflecting the light of the sleeping monitors. “What?”

The thief smiled slightly at the other woman’s apparent surprise. It was always a little funny to see Sophie realize something she didn’t expect, like that Parker was more observant than the grifter thought. It was like sneaking up on her, but with words. “I know you all think there’s something wrong with me, but I’m pretty sure normal people are usually more… relieved, after they think they’re going to die. Everyone on that plane was practically crying when Hardison landed it,” she pointed out. “You were relieved, then, right? And happy. You were all hugs and reassuring the client and Hardison that we were all okay. But this time you’re all quiet and sad. Why?”

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Sophie said automatically, or perhaps trying to avoid Parker’s question. The thief just snorted. She knew that if there wasn’t something wrong with her, Sophie wouldn’t spend nearly so much time trying to teach her how to act normal. It must have gotten through to the older woman that Parker wasn’t about to change the subject, because she eventually said, “Oh, fine. I have been a bit off, it’s true, but not about… not about the bomb, or mostly not. I… I think I’m going to go away for a while.”

Parker froze. Sophie couldn’t leave. Sophie was almost as important as Nate (and truth be told, Parker liked and trusted the grifter a good deal more than the honest man). Without Sophie, everything would fall apart, even if it wouldn’t happen as fast as without Nate. “Where are you going?”

“I… I don’t know,” Sophie said, sitting up and drawing her knees in close like Parker did when she was upset.

“Now?”

“No, not… maybe in a few days. After I figure out where I’m going.”

“Why?”

“I think I need some time to… think about things.” Sophie’s voice was shaky, not at all like the calm, confident tone it usually held.

“What kinds of things?”

The older woman was quiet for so long that Parker didn’t think she was going to answer until she said, very quietly, “I think Sophie Devereaux is dead. It’s just taken almost actually dying to see it.”

“But you’re Sophie. And you’re not dead.”

“I’m Sophie like you’re Alice, Parker,” the grifter said quietly.

Parker shook her head sharply. “No, you’re Sophie like I’m Parker. You’re… all the others like I’m Alice,” she countered, ignoring the fact that the grifter had finally admitted that Parker wasn’t really Alice.

Sophie sighed loudly. “No, Parker,” she said gently, “Sophie Devereaux was a character, like any of the others. She was… selfish. That was her defining trait. She didn’t care if she made enemies, as long as she got what she wanted. She would never have settled down with a crew like this. She didn’t have friends. She didn’t _help_ people. I’m… not Sophie. Not anymore. That character, that persona, she’s dead.”

“Well who are you, then?”

“I – I don’t know,” the older woman said with a sniff. “That’s what I’ve got to figure out, I suppose.”

Parker rolled her eyes like Eliot did whenever he thought she was being very silly. “Can’t you just pick a name and be that person? That’s what I did.”

Now Sophie was the one who looked confused (which made two of them). “What?”

“Just pick a name. Like Parker. But, um… not actually Parker. That one’s mine. And then we’ll call you that, and you can be like Sophie, but with helping people and friends and a team.” _And you can stay_ , she added silently, still reluctant to admit how much she cared for the team.

Sophie (not-Sophie?) was smiling now, but only with her mouth, not like she meant it. “It’s not that simple, Parker.”

Parker was pretty sure it was. She understood wanting to leave a name and a person you used to be behind. She didn’t use the name she was born with (Brooke was a happy girl with a brother, and she died with him), or the one the foster system gave her (the less said about Rebecca’s life the better), after all, and she’d had plenty of aliases like Alice over the years. She was always still herself, though, no matter what anyone else called her, and she couldn’t see why the Sophie, or not-Sophie who took her shopping and helped her act normal and teased Eliot and humored Hardison by listening to his geek-speak and took care of all of them (but mostly Nate) had to go, just because the Sophie-alias didn’t fit with the team. It didn’t matter what that person was called, they needed her.

“You can’t go,” she said quietly, begging the older woman to understand. “It doesn’t work without you, either.”

Sophie was quiet for a long time, her cheeks growing wet with silent tears. “Oh, Parker,” she said at last, “I’ll come back. But I have to go… I just have to.”

Parker didn’t have an answer to that. She walked just away, letting herself out through a window. It wasn’t fair of Sophie to bring them all back together, only to decide that she had to leave. All of a sudden, everything was broken, and Parker had no idea what to do about it.


End file.
